


Verismo

by Demi (pseudodemi)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Developing Relationship, High School, M/M, Music, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:52:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8450650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudodemi/pseuds/Demi
Summary: Roxas can't move forward from his recent breakup.Riku doesn't even know where to begin when it comes to confronting Sora about his feelings.Demyx refuses to jeopardize his current close friendship with Zexion.Axel's still blaming himself for letting his ex-girlfriend treat him the way she did.They're all in their final year of high school, hopefully they'll be able to overcome the obstacles that their everyday lives have thrown at them.A/N: Depending on how far I decide to take this work, it won't be a happy ending, just a word of warning for the few individuals that have decided to follow this.





	1. Twenty Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> Hello readers! Demi here. I am extremely new to the writing scene so please bear with me.
> 
> A lot of what will be written here is based on personal experiences in some way, shape, or form and as the chapters go on, it will probably become a lot darker compared to the lighthearted feel I'm trying to achieve in the first few chapters.
> 
> I'm bantering, I apologize.
> 
> As I was saying, I'm not extremely good with writing so there will no doubt be some awkward spacing between paragraphs and whatnot as well as spelling and grammar mistakes. (I'm still learning, okay? This a process people)
> 
> I unfortunately can't give a set timeline for how frequently this will updated since this entire work literally comes to me in phases and I'm currently working on multiple chapters all at once. Whenever I think of a scene that needs to be included in this plot, I immediately type it out on my phone so I don't forget about later on. There may be times when I upload multiple chapters in one week and that's honestly because I feel the need to pump out as much creativity as a I can all at once while it's still there otherwise it'll go away and I'll procrastinate. (Story of my fucking life.)
> 
> I obviously don't own any part of Kingdom Hearts or the characters, but I do have to take ownership for the plot of this particular story, even if no one ends up reading it.
> 
> I really hope you all enjoy this first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> PERSONAL SIDE-NOTE: THIS FIRST CHAPTER IS REALLY FUCKING LONG AND BEFORE I KNEW IT, IT WAS OVER 6000 WORDS LONG. I'M SORRY. THE OTHER CHAPTERS WILL MOST LIKELY NOT BE THIS LENGTHY.
> 
> -Demi

Senior year. One more year of this fucking hell hole and Roxas Strife would be out this godforsaken place known as Destiny District High School. He'd only moved here a few weeks ago and already the school year was off to a bad start. Being a new student, he missed the first few days of school in order to get all of his paperwork together, meet with some of the faculty, and get settled in before attending his classes. He had no friends and no one to talk to except for his friend Sora, who he'd known since he was an infant.

 

Roxas couldn't even remember when it was they had originally met, that's how long they'd known each other. Needless to say, Sora was quite a handful to deal with at the best of times, with his overflowing bubbly and chipper personality and an attitude so energetic and lively that it seemed to radiate into his hair, it was no wonder that everyone in the school adored him and could care less about his more than obvious sexual preferences. They loved him, and he loved them back just as easily.

 

Roxas on the other hand, was quite the opposite in comparison. Sure, he used to have a solid group of friends back at his old high school Twilight Town High, but that all quickly changed on the last day of his grade eleven year, when Sora's older brother decided to drop off the face of the earth and leave Roxas wondering what he had done wrong to deserve being completely deserted.

 

Sora's brother had originally moved to Twilight Town in order to finish his victory lap. He had failed a few of his classes and couldn't graduate the previous year. It had ended up with the two of them falling into a whirlwind romance that lasted for just over five months. Roxas had never opened himself that much to someone before in his life, not even his closest friends. So, when June came along and Sora's brother graduated, Roxas thought for sure that they'd still keep in contact with each other even after the new graduate went off to college only a few kilometers away from Twilight Town High, but instead, he up and all but completely disappeared with nothing but a note saying “I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore. It's over.”

 

Roxas had tried countless times to contact him but he never answered any texts or calls and after spending the entire summer being completely devastated and depressed in his room, refusing to go out or talk to any of his friends, his parents decided to move back to his childhood home of Destiny Islands, which was all sun and beach instead of a quite-yet-busy little town that he used to call home.

 

Their excuse had been work-related and being closer to family friends but Roxas knew better. It was his parents way of giving Roxas a somewhat fresh start at his last year of high school. Sora's brother rarely visited home so it was really the perfect opportunity.

 

"Why did I get the overly concerned parents?", He mumbled to himself as he made his way to his new assigned locker. "You just had to go and fuck up the perfect little life you had going and now you look where you ar-"

 

His own personal mumbled banter was quickly interrupted by none other than the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Sora nearly screaming his name from down the hall. Seriously, did this guy even know how loud he was being? His yell certainly attracted enough stares, that's for sure.

  
"ROXAS!" Sora said once again, rather loudly. This time right beside his ear.

  
Roxas groaned, then said quietly, "I'm right here, Sora. You don't have to yell."

  
"Yeah, okay, whatever. ANYWAY, I know you said you had a few community hours left that you needed to finish and lucky for you, I just so happen to know of a way you can get the-"

  
Roxas cut him off abruptly. "I don't _need_ them, Sora. They'd just be nice to have on my transcript, that's all."

  
Sora looked at him blankly for a split second, then continued on and said, "Well, regardless, you can join peer tutoring during your spare period to get the hours. I already told them you might show up so if your interested, it's in room 138. That's in the new wing of the school." Sora smiled brightly at Roxas. "Want me to show you?"

  
"I-" Roxas started, what was he about to get himself into? "Sure. How about during lunch? Since my spare is directly after that."

  
Sora smiled again before saying, "Lucky bastard! I wish I had my lunch and spare back-to-back. But yeah, sure, sounds great! I'll meet you in caf. for lunch!"  
After he said those last words, he took off just as quickly as he came.

  
_'I didn't even get a chance to ask where my first class is...'_

\----

Twenty minutes. That's how late Roxas was to his first class. It took asking two (giggling) apparently freshman students and a trip to the office before he was able to find the room for his math class. Ah yes, nothing beats waking up and going to school only to sit on your ass for seventy-five minutes and learn about numbers. Needless to say, the teacher wasn't very impressed about him showing up late, regardless of the late slip given to him by the attendance office. Apparently the class hadn't even fully started yet either, judging by the lack of students not doing work and instead were quietly having conversations with each other.

 

The teacher, who refused to be called by her last name, introduced herself as Ms. Tifa before instructing Roxas as to where he should sit, giving him the course syllabus in the process.

  
"I'm assuming you're the person Sora keeps rambling on about?" a voice to his right said.  
When Roxas looked up, it took him a moment to realize who was talking to him; a blue-slate haired boy wearing black skinny jeans and band shirt paired with a plain grey cardigan. He had quite an untidy fringe and currently had his face buried in a book with only his one eye visible over the rim that was staring directly at Roxas.

  
"Uhm, yeah I am. How'd you guess?" Roxas asked nervously, a bit startled by being talked to by someone in the first place.

  
The blue-slate haired boy offered a small smirk, despite his most of his face being covered, while he turned back to his book, still watching Roxas from his peripheral and said, "his description of his 'most dearest long-lost friend', his words, not mine, is uncanny."

 

Roxas stared back a bit cluelessly before the boy looked over once again and gave him an eye-roll before closing his book and fully turning towards Roxas to continue what he was saying.

 

"I'm joking. I didn't have to guess because it's all anyone has been talking about since yesterday morning. 'Spiky blond hair, blue eyes and _just_ as adorable as our very own ray of sunshine known as Sora.'" He said the last parts with air quotations. "It was kind of hard _not_ to recognize you just by the way people have been talking about you. Sora, to be quite blunt, doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut and neither does the rest of the student body. The only thing left out about your arrival was your name. Care to introduce yourself?" the boy gave Roxas a neutral stare.

  
Roxas returned a stare equally as neutral, he found it easier to not show too many emotions when first meeting someone. He sort of liked this guy and his blunt, sassy personality, it reminded him a bit of himself. "I'm Roxas. And you are...?"

  
"Zexion." the boy gave a small smile. "What class do have next after this?"

  
"Uh..." Roxas quickly checked his schedule before replying, "intro. to photography."

  
Zexion gave a small nod. "Want to walk together there? I have a class right next to there."

  
' _He's a bit strange...'_ ' Roxas thought before saying, "Sure, that'd be great. I still haven't found my way around yet to be honest..."

  
"I figured as much." Zexion said. He was about to continue their conversation but was interrupted by Ms. Tifa announcing rather loudly that she'd be giving out a worksheet to be completed by the end of class and handed in with absolutely no talking because she had "important teacher business" to attend to. Meaning she was on the classroom phone for the rest of the period talking to one of the Phys. Ed. Teachers.

  
"We'll continue this conversation after class." Zexion said before turning towards the worksheet they were all given.  
Roxas nodded in reply before turning towards his own.

  
\----

After first period, Roxas and his newly found companion, Zexion, made their way towards their next class.

  
"Do you mind if I stop by my locker?" Zexion inquired. "I want to dispose of this vile textbook."

  
"Yeah, no problem." Roxas replied with a small chuckle. Yup, he definitely liked this guy. "Lead the way."

  
"Did you have any trouble with the assignment?" Zexion asked boredly as they walked down the hall, holding his textbook in his arms loosely against his chest.

"Personally I don't see why she even bothers with worksheets during the first few weeks, it's boring and we aren't learning anything new."

"I'll agree with you there that it's really boring," Roxas replied. "But to answer your question, no, I didn't have any trouble with it. I've already taken advanced math before so it was all just review for me."

"Same here." Zexion replied. "You should sign up for peer tutoring if you've got the free time. Extra community hours and depending on who you're paired up with, probably another senior student or someone on their victory lap, you can basically just slack off and review the other person's work once they're done, offer help when needed and then spend the rest of the time doing whatever the hell you want. It's what I do and teachers generally don't ever bother to check up on what's happening, they just check you in, leave, and come back near the end to check you out."

  
"Sounds like you've been doing this for awhile", Roxas said with raised eyebrows.

  
"Perhaps." Zexion replied with a knowing smirk.

  
"Too bad Sora already beat you to the punch", Roxas continued. "He went ahead and told whoever in peer tutoring that I was interested in getting extra community hours and might show up today during my spare."

  
"Let me guess," Zexion said as they started getting closer to his locker. "Fourth spare?"

  
"How-" Roxas began but was interrupted quickly.

  
"All senior student either end up with first period spare or fourth period spare. Now, seeing as you already showed up for first period, you obviously don't have a spare first thing in the morning. And this all under the assumption that you actually have enough left-over credits to get a spare in the first place." Zexion said matter-of-factly. "I guess we'll be together for that as well."

  
"Yeah," Roxas said. "I guess so."

 

Once arrived at Zexion's locker, Zexion must have struggled to open his locker for at least a solid few minutes before Roxas had offered to help but to no avail.

  
"Damn thing-" Zexion said around clenched teeth as he tried once again to open his locker after Roxas' failed attempt. "Every fucking day this stupid thing won't ope-"

  
"Need some help?" a new voice asked as a foot collided with the bottom of Zexion's locker before the door gently swung open as if it were never stuck in the first place. Leaning casually against the set of lockers, was a boy with longish white-silver hair who was at least a head taller, if not a bit more, than Zexion and Roxas. He stood there with a small grin plastered on face which reached his aquamarine coloured eyes.

  
Zexion gave him a blank stare. "I would've figured it out, you know", he said plainly, but the new face was no longer looking at Zexion but instead staring directly at Roxas.

  
"Are you the new guy everyone's been talking about?" the stranger asked with the slightest tilt of his head, curiosity evident in his voice. It caused some of his hair to fall into his eyes but he quickly brushed the strands aside, and before Roxas could reply, Zexion quickly interrupted by saying sarcastically, "No, Riku, not at all. How could he _possibly_ be the person everyone's been talking about when he matches the description that everyone's been bantering about _perfectly._ There's absolutely no slight resemblance whatsoever."

  
"Whoa, Zex," Riku said with eyebrows raised and his hands held up in defense. "Tone down the sass a bit. I know you didn't get the chance to have your morning rant with Demyx today but trust me, it'll be okay once we get through next period and go to lunch."

  
"Don't test me, Riku." Zexion said seriously before turning to his locker and 'disposed of his vile textbook', as he had previously said he wanted to.

 

"Oh, for God's sake Zexion," Riku said with a sigh while slinging his right arm around Zexion's shoulders. "Take a damn chill pill already, you'll see him soon enough anyway and then you can rant as much as your stone-cold heart desires."

  
"Riku, get your fucking hands off of me or I swear on the entirety of my book collection, I _will_ deck you." Zexion said as he stood mid-way through closing his backpack.

  
"Don't be so fucking melodramatic, Z", Riku said while he turned to Roxas and with his free hand, reached around the front of Zexion, forming it into a fist, and held it out for Roxas to bump. "I'm Riku by the way, if you haven't figured that out already."

  
Zexion mumbled incoherently as Roxas shrugged and bumped the outstretched fist that was being offered to him with his own. "I'm Ro-"

  
"ROXAS!" a certain brown spiky-haired someone yelled from down the hall.

  
"Jesus fucking Christ, not again..." Roxas groaned as Sora got closer.

  
"Roxas! You found your first class okay, right? Hi, Riku" Sora smiled in the direction of Riku, who gave a 'hey' and a small smile in return, before he turned back to Roxas. "I totally forgot to show you where it was!"

  
"Again, Sora, I'm right here. You really don't need to yell, and yes, I found my classroom after getting directions from the office." Roxas said with a slight strain of his voice, Sora really was hard to be around sometimes.

  
"He was late." Zexion interjected.

  
"You were LATE?!" Sora asked in exasperation. "I'm so sorry I didn't show you where your class was!"

  
"It's really not a big deal, Sora", Roxas said quietly. "No need to apologize."

  
Sora looked at his phone and said, "Crap, I needa go. I'll catch up with you at lunch, okay? Bye!", before he took off down the hall once again.

  
"We should get going too." Zexion said while closing his locker. "We only have a few more minutes before the next classes start."

Roxas and Riku both nodded before following Zexion towards their next classes.

  
\----

Photography class itself was pretty straight forward, everyone was split into groups of three or four and received a camera for them all to get accustomed to and learn what everything does, such as light exposure, aperture, shutter speed etc. and before they knew it, class was over and they were making their way to lunch.

 

"So, whereabouts are you from?" Riku asked Roxas as they all walked towards the cafeteria.

"I'm from Twilight Town." Roxas replied with a slight reluctance. He really wasn't in the mood today to discuss _why_ he moved here and hoped Riku wouldn't ask.

He didn't. Instead he just replied with, "Oh, cool. I've heard Sora talk about that place a few times before. He said it was a really nice town."

To his right, Riku heard Zexion trying to suppress a sigh. "What?" he asked Zexion as they walked through the cafeteria doors.

"Hm?" Zexion asked innocently, "oh, I was just thinking that instead of obsessing over him, you should seriously just go and ask him ou-"

"ROXAS!" Sora abruptly interrupted, _yet again_ , the conversation that was taking place as he ran from the table he was sitting at over to where Roxas, Riku, and Zexion had just walked in.

' _Christ, not again...'_ Roxas thought.

 

"Did you wanna sit with us for lunch?" Sora motioned with his head towards the table where about five other people were already sitting.

"Um..." Roxas started. "Do you mind if I sit with them for lunch today?" Roxas motioned towards Riku and Zexion.

"Okay!" Sora replied with same chipper attitude that he always had as he started to turn away.

Zexion gave Riku a sharp elbow to his side and gave him a stern look that said _'go talk to him now'_.

 

_"Ow",_ Riku hissed while he glared at Zexion. But none the less walked towards Sora who had just taken a few steps away from where he just stood talking to Roxas.

"Uhm, h-hey, Sora," Riku said as Sora turned around to hearing his name with eyebrows slightly raised.

"Yeah?" Sora replied.

"Uh, I was just wondering if you got all the notes to..." Riku's voice faded as Roxas and Zexion walked out of earshot towards a table near the window that was currently unoccupied.

 

"What was all that about?" Roxas asked Zexion as they reached the table.

"What, the whole Riku acting like a fourteen-year-old girl in front of Sora?" he replied as they pulled out the blue plastic chairs from the table and took a seat.

 

"Well," Roxas started. "I wasn't going to say it quite like that but yeah."

Zexion gave him a measured look, crossing his arms over his chest before saying, "I'm honestly surprised you haven't noticed yet."

 

Roxas only gave a very confused look in response to him. Zexion sighed as he unfolded his arms and instead placed them on the table, interlacing his delicate (and very callused in some areas, Roxas noticed) fingers together and looked directly into Roxas' eyes.

He said, "Riku's head-over-heels in love with Sora. Or whatever", he finished that last part with a hand gesture. "Maybe 'love' isn't the right word but regardless, he's had a crush on him since grade nine or so and still has yet to make any sort of move towards him asides from these little conversations they have." another gesture, this time with his eyes towards the two still talking on the opposite side of the cafeteria.

 

"They've been best friends since they were kids but only in the last year or so has Riku slowly distanced himself from Sora. Sure, they're still friends but they don't talk or hang out with each other as nearly as much as they used to. Probably because Riku realized he had feelings for him." Zexion sighed again. "I really wish he would just grow a damn pair and ask him out already. It's starting to become really annoying with how antsy he get's whenever Sora is around...”

 

Roxas tried to think back to when he and Sora were kids. He tried to remember all of the times they played together and visited each others houses but he couldn't seem to remember anything about Sora mentioning a friend named Riku. Or rather any other friends come to think of it.

' _I guess we really weren't as close as I thought we were back then. Huh.'_

 

As Roxas was currently lost in his train of thought, he hardly noticed a new presence at the table until an overly chipper voice suddenly spoke out saying, "Zexion! Sorry for not being here this morning man! I totally had a doctors appointment that I forgot about and didn't have any time to grab my phone and shoot you a text before I was rushing out the door!"

 

The boy gave Zexion a sheepish smile while scratching the back of his sandy blond mohawk? Mullet? Both? Roxas couldn't really determine what type of hairstyle this guy had, it was definitely original though.

 

Zexion sighed. “It's fine, Demyx.” After a pause he added, “oh, right. This is Roxas. He just moved here.” Zexion motioned to Roxas with one of his hands while he said this.

The other boy looked to Roxas and smiled. “Hey, how's it going? I'm Demyx!”

Roxas could here Zexion mutter something about that fact being obvious but Roxas just replied with a simple “nice to meet you” before Demyx took a seat beside Zexion.

 

' _Their personalities are so different from each other_ ', Roxas thought. ' _I wonder how they get along so well._ '

 

Demyx and Zexion broke into casual conversation while they all took out their lunches and began to eat. Roxas opted out of trying to engage in conversation with them because he really just wanted a few moments alone with his thoughts. And besides, it sounded like the two of them were in the middle of a debate with each other regarding some type of marine species that Roxas had never even heard of.

Was Roxas really making friends this easily? He'd never had this much success with making acquaintances and/or friends at his old school.

 

Back in Twilight Town, he only had a handful of people that he actually talked to. Hayner, Pence and Olette were the closest thing he had to 'best friends', and even then he struggled to relate to them when it came to his tastes in music and fashion choices.

 

Most of the student body at Twilight Town High wore preppy-ish clothes and listened to mainstream music, with Roxas and a few others being the exception to listening to rock, post-hardcore and other alternative genres. These handful of students usually opted for wearing typical 'skater' clothes. What could Roxas say? He loved wearing skinny jeans, Converse or Vans, loose tanks, and especially tshirts that had the names of his favourite bands written across the front. Plus, if those said tshirts had been bought at a concert, Roxas loved them even more because of the sentiment behind them. To top off his look, he usually always paired his outfit with a flannel or a plain zippered hoodie.

 

Riku eventually joined them all at the table once he returned from talking to Sora. Before he could even sit down though, Zexion interjected by saying, "So?"

Riku sighed as he took a seat at the table in one of the chairs next to Roxas, across from Zexion and Demyx.

 

"We're, uh... Meeting up together to study this week."

"..." Zexion stared at him blankly and blinked. "And?"

"...And that's it", Riku said quietly.

"Oh, for the love of Christ, Riku." Zexion said in an exasperated voice.

"Hey, Zex," Demyx said, placing a reassuring hand on Zexion's shoulder. "It's alright, he'll get the confidence... Eventually."

"Thanks." Riku said sarcastically, putting his head down to rest his chin on his arms that were folded across the table in front of him.

 

Zexion suddenly looked very alert. Sitting up straight in his chair, he looked around the cafeteria briefly before saying, "hold on a moment. Where the hell is Axel?"

"Fuck if I know." Riku grumbled into his arms. "Haven't seen him all morning."

"Yeah, me neither..." Zexion replied absently.

 

Just then, a new figure sauntered into the cafeteria. A bright mass of red hair attached to a tall and slender figure, with a jacket flung over one shoulder, was making his way over to where they were sitting, a wicked grin plastered on his mouth.

 

' _Who in the hell..._ ' Roxas thought.

 

"Speak of the Devil!" Demyx called out to the red haired boy, standing up from where he sat.

"...And he shall appear!" the red haired boy said, reaching the table and slapping his palm against Demyx's before ending their little handshake-greeting-thing by bumping their fists together.

 

"Dude," Riku said. "Where have you been?"

"What the hell happened to your face?" Zexion asked shocked. The boy in question, Axel, had two small square white bandages on both of his cheeks, one on each side.

 

Taking a seat next to Roxas, completely ignoring the small blond's presence, Roxas couldn't help but notice the unique features of the other boy's face. Sharp cheekbones blended into a defined jaw line, and striking green eyes that contrasted his hair were outlined in a fair amount of eyeliner.

' _Most guys can't pull that off..._ ' Roxas thought. ' _But it really does suit him quite nicely._ '

 

"Uh..." Axel scratched the side of his temple awkwardly with a sheepish grin. "About that..."

 

"...No," Zexion said after a moment, staring at him with a judging look. "Please tell me you didn't."

"Huh?" Demyx looked at the two confused. "Didn't what? What's going on? Did you get into a fight, Axel?"

Axel visibly swallowed. "Ah... Well, you see..." Axel mumbled quietly.

"He got-" Zexion started to say.

"Oh... Oh! Look at the time!" Axel said nervously, cutting Zexion off while looking at his phone. "I should uh... Go buy something to eat for lunch! Haha... Yep!"

 

Axel quickly got up from his seat and grabbed Zexion's arm, none too gently, and hauled him out of his seat.

 

"Axel, what the fu-!" Zexion tried to say.

"Come with me." Axel hissed into Zexion's ear. "Be back in a jiffy!" he called back to the group as he walked away with an angry and sputtering Zexion in tow.

 

Roxas, along with Demyx and Riku, just stared dumbfound at the two retreating figures who were making their way over to the place where students purchased food.

"... I don't even wanna know." Riku eventually said.

Demyx just shook his head and went back to what was left of his lunch. Roxas and Riku followed suit until Zexion and Axel returned to the table.

 

"Ahem," Zexion started, sitting back down in his chair. "Axel has so _graciously_ informed me of prior events that took place today and would appreciate it if I 'kept my fucking mouth shut'. Or so he said." Zexion turned his attention back to the remainder of his lunch and lapsed into silence.

 

"O...kay..." Demyx said a little awkwardly.

Riku just stared in confusion while Roxas didn't even know how to react.

"... You'll all find out soon enough anyway." Zexion mumbled under his breath while Axel sighed loudly, taking a seat.

 

As Axel picked up the slice of pizza that he had just bought and brought it towards his mouth, he paused.

 

"Oh, hey," he said, looking down at Roxas. "You're new."

"Uh..." Roxas said shyly. "Yeah."

"He has a name, jackass." Riku interjected.

"Gee," Axel said sarcastically to Riku. "Thanks tips, I haven't exactly gotten that far yet."

Riku slumped in his chair, returning his focus back to his nearly finished lunch.

 

"The name's Axel." the red haired boy said, returning his gaze to Roxas. "Got it memorized?"

As he said the last part, Riku, Zexion and Demyx could all be seen mouthing "got it memorized" in time with when Axel said it.

 

"Uh..." Roxas said, giving a bit of a smirk at how the other three mocked Axel. "Yeah. I'm Roxas."

"Roxas..." Axel trailed off for a slight moment. "Cool name." He said, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Yeah, thanks." Roxas said a bit awkwardly.

 

The P.A. system suddenly crackled to life and the voice coming over the speakers spoke harshly. "Axel DeSantis. Office. Now."

 

"Awe man," Axel said, annoyance evident in his voice. "barely the first day back and I'm already getting called down?!" Axel sighed before standing up with one quick motion, taking his pizza slice with him in one hand and giving a two finger salute with the other. "Duty calls, 'gents! See you next period."

 

Roxas froze. He wasn't sure what had caused it. Maybe it was the piercing eye colour, or the way that he carried himself, or the similar way in which he said goodbye to the group of people sitting at the table. But regardless, it suddenly started to bring back too many memories all at once. Roxas could feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes.

 

' _No_.' he thought. ' _Get a grip, Roxas. Not here. Not in front of these people that you just met._ ' Roxas clenched his teeth in order to stop his brain from thinking back to three months ago.

 

Unaware of what was going through Roxas' head, Zexion suddenly interjected his thoughts with a loud sigh before saying, "is he ever _not_ a shit disturber around school? Seriously, he needs to stop causing trouble, it's become quite tiresome year after year."

"Axel will be Axel." Demyx said with a small chuckle. Riku just nodded and "hmphed" in agreement.

 

Roxas excused himself from their lunch table, making an excuse that he needed to use the washroom.

 

It took Roxas a minute to locate where the washroom was but once he found it, he quickly went inside and made his towards the sinks. Thankful that no one else was in there, he turned on the tap and let the cold water run over his hands before he splashed some on his face.

 

He took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. Placing his hands on either side of the sink, he looked into the eyes of his own reflection and stared.

 

"He's gone, Roxas." He mumbled to himself quietly. "Why do you still let him effect you so much when _he's_ the one who left _you_."

' _Isn't that all the more reason to keep obsessing over him? He left you without any sort of reason, he's the reason you feel this way. It's because you still have feelings for him. You can't and won't let it go._ ' His conscious said, laughing at him.

 

"Ugh." Roxas groaned. "Get it together, Roxas."

 

He finished up at the sink and turned the tap off, drying his hands on his jeans and making his way back towards the cafeteria.

 

On his way back, he bumped into Sora who cheerily asked him if he'd come over after to school to catch up with one another and have dinner. Roxas reluctantly agreed, also briefly mentioning that he wouldn't need help getting to his next period and finally made it back to his lunch table where everyone else was packing up and getting ready to go to their next classes.

 

"Demyx and I are about to head over to the peer tutoring classroom if you'd care to walk with us there." Zexion said politely to Roxas.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Roxas replied. "That'd be great, thanks."

Zexion gave a curt nod in reply while Roxas cleaned up his finished lunch and grabbed his backpack before they headed towards room 138.

 

"See you guys," Riku said as he turned towards the gym which was near the new wing of the school. "I have Phys. Ed. now so I'll see you later."

Zexion, Demyx and Roxas all gave their quick goodbyes before continuing to walk down the hall.

 

"So, Roxas," Demyx started. "What type of music do you like?"

"Uhm," Roxas replied. "Mostly rock, punk rock, post-hardcore... Stuff like that... You?"

"Sweet!" Demyx said cheerily, glad that he found something of interest to talk to his new companion about. "I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to music so I'll listen to just about anything if it sounds good."

 

Demyx scratched the back of his head a bit nervously. "Do you play any instruments?"

"Not really..." Roxas replied. He was really hoping this wouldn't turn into a conversation about whether or not he could sing. "I play some guitar and piano, but only really simple stuff."

"Piano," Zexion said, suddenly interested. "That's a great choice in instruments. I still play quite regularly, mostly classical music. Demyx has been teaching me how to play guitar recently though, I'm thoroughly enjoying it."

 

They trailed off into silence as they walked down the hallway, making their way to the peer tutoring classroom. The new wing of the school was stark and white. Compared to the rest of the school which was varying degrees of faded blue and beige, the new wing of the school slightly reminded Roxas of a hospital. Roxas didn't particularly like this, he hated hospitals. They always reminded him of the time he fractured his leg when he was younger, trying to learn a new move on his skateboard. He slightly shivered at the thought as they entered room 138.

 

A few students were already there, paired off in groups of two. The teacher who was there briefly went over the process of how peer tutoring worked and gave him a short single-paged form to fill out before telling him to take a seat with Zexion and Demyx until more students showed up so that Roxas could be assigned a partner.

 

Only one other student showed up: Axel.

 

"Ah," the teacher said, looking at the clock on the wall. "DeSantis. How nice of you to finally join us."

The teacher looked around the room for a moment and checked the list of students and peer tutors that had already signed in.

"How about you go and join Mr. Strife over there?" The teacher said with a small smile. "He seems to already be acquainted with Mr. Williams and Mr. Anderson, so I'll assign you to him for now until we make the final decisions. He apparently excelled very well at his last school in math so hopefully you two will be a good match."

Axel gave a curt nod before making his way over to Roxas, Zexion and Demyx.

 

' _You've gotta be kidding me._ ' Roxas thought, overhearing the entire conversation between Axel and the teacher. Axel walked over and dropped his backpack on the floor, taking a seat next to Roxas. ' _I did_ not _sign up for this._ '

 

Axel brought the back of his fist up to his mouth and coughed. "Hey." he said awkwardly. "Normally the teacher's just put me with Dem and Z but, uh, they told me they're assigning me to you so, yeah."

"I know." Roxas said bluntly. "I heard."

 

Zexion looked between the two a few times before snickering. "Good luck, Roxas, you've got your work cut out for you. He's quite a handful."

"Gee, thanks," Axel said. " _Mr. Williams._ "

 

Zexion wasn't wrong, Axel _was_ a handful. He had the focus of a toddler, always straying off topic and away from the work he was doing. Roxas, more than a few times, had to gently remind Axel to keep working or else he'd never get anything done. And more than once he had to jump in and correct Axel mid-equation.

 

"No. Dude. _Carry_ the two, not divide it." Roxas said, leaning over Axel's arm and showing him what he was doing wrong. "Like this."

Across the table, Zexion chuckled.

"Shut up, Z." Axel said. "I don't get all of this math shit. I'm way better at chemistry, and we both know it."

"You do realize that most science requires some form of math, right?" Zexion asked, staring at Axel as if he genuinely didn't understand this simple concept.

"...It's totally different." Axel said in a stubborn tone.

"Sure it is." Zexion replied, pursing his lips.

 

Zexion returned to checking over Demyx's work, circling and correcting any few mistakes that he had made. While Axel had trouble with math, Demyx struggled more with grammar and punctuation. Sure, the sandy haired blond could read and write just fine, but he liked spending the time with Zexion. Plus it was nice to make sure all of his English homework was properly written so that he could get better marks in class.

 

Although Demyx had never admitted it to Zexion, he really did like him. They'd been friends since the beginning of high school and over the years, had become very close. Unlike Riku and his situation with Sora, Demyx refused to let his feelings come in the way of Zexion's and his friendship. As far as Demyx knew, Zexion had never been in a relationship with anyone and had come to the conclusion that perhaps Zexion had no desire to be with anyone. It didn't matter to him anyway, Demyx was just glad that he could spend time with Zexion on a regular basis. Whether it be watching a movie, teaching each other how to play a different instrument, going to concerts, or their daily debates with one another, Demyx wouldn't miss it for the world.

 

\----

 

Their peer tutoring period ended after what seemed like an eternity to Roxas and they all found themselves making their way to their final classes.

 

' _Finally..._ ' Roxas thought, feeling somewhat drained after the whole ordeal of helping Axel finish his homework. ' _I thought that would never end._ '

 

Zexion departed them, saying goodbye before he left in the direction of his Philosophy class, while Axel did the same and left to go to his World Religions class. Which left Roxas and Demyx walking down the hall towards the music room, with Demyx leading the way.

 

"Just a side note for this class, I doubt we'll be doing much this week. We usually just get the whole first week to fill out bullshit theory worksheets and screw around on the instruments until the teacher decides what we'll be focusing on for the semester." Demyx said, shrugging.

 

They entered the class and took a seat. As said by Demyx, they really didn't end up doing a whole lot in the class asides from theory worksheets and before Roxas knew it, he was making his way towards his locker. Upon arriving there, an anxious looking Sora was impatiently waiting, telling Roxas to hurry up so they could leave.

 

That was easier said than done. While Roxas had only taken a few minutes to get all of his stuff together, Sora seemed to take a lifetime to finish saying goodbye to all of his friends and classmates. It seemed as if the entire student body had something to say him. It was really starting to aggravate Roxas, that was for sure.

 

Finally, after twenty minutes, they left the school in the direction of Sora's house.

 


	2. (Re)connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter after this will be mostly focusing on Riku and Sora so hang in there for that please.  
> Also, a flashback chapter to Sora's not-so-secret older brother will also be happening once it's finished being typed and edited to the best of my ability. ^^;  
> I hope you all don't mind the music aspect that this series is slowly going to take on, because that's where this series is going.
> 
> ANYWAY,  
> If you come across any typos or etc. then please let me know so I can fix them!
> 
> -Demi

They finally made it to Sora's house. It wasn't so much that Sora lived far away, maybe only a fifteen minute walk at most, it was the humidity and the heat. Roxas couldn't handle it. He regretted wearing a zip-up hoodie along with a white with black sleeved baseball shirt that day because he was _boiling_. Roxas was convinced that he'd started steaming like a kettle soon if they didn't get inside an air conditioned building asap.

 

Sora, on the other hand, seemed just fine. Wearing a thin sleeveless hoodie, board shorts, and sneakers, all the while smiling and attempting to make small talk for just about _anything_. The weather, school, upcoming town events, the beach, tv shows. You name it, and he was talking about it.

' _Does he ever shut up?_ ' Roxas thought irritably.

Most of the island had typical beach-style homes, and Sora's was no different. The outside was painted white, much like most of the other houses on the street. The front of the house had a small porch where a light blue bench swing was hanging, with plush cushions and pillows and a thin blanket draped over the back of it. They walked up towards the front door and entered his house, immediately dropping their backpacks on the floor, glad to be finally be out of the heat.

“Man, it's warm out today, isn't it?” Sora said, taking off his shoes and putting them on the mat beside the door, Roxas following suit.

“ _Warm_?” Roxas asked, appalled. “It's a goddamn _furnace_ outside. I thought I was going die from heatstroke.”

Sora barked out a laugh. “If you think this is bad, wait until April or May next year. _That's_ when the heat really starts to kick in.

Roxas groaned, defeated. He wasn't cut out for this weather at all.

Twilight Town never had this kind of heat. Sure, the summer's could get fairly hot but it lacked the gross humidity that was almost constantly present on Destiny Island, and as soon as Fall came around, the temperature stayed pleasantly cool, with the odd cold day here and there, but still just warm enough to get away with only a light jacket on the coldest of days. Winter wasn't usually too bad either, the town still received cold weather and snow but it was usually brief, only staying around for no more than a few days at a time.

“Did you want a snack or anything?” Sora asked, walking into the kitchen and gently throwing open the fridge to rummage through it.

“Maybe just juice or something.” Roxas replied absently. “I'm good with whatever.”

 

While Sora continued to look through the fridge, Roxas took the time look around the foyer that he was currently standing in, as well as the rest of the main floor that he could see from where he stood. All of the walls were white as well as most of the furniture. Despite being a beach-style home on the outside, the inside of the house had an open-concept. The main foyer opened up into a decently sized living room, that was directly in front of Roxas, as well as the kitchen that was to his left. The tall ceilings allowed him to see the second floor at the top of the curved staircase, that was to his right, and from his current vantage point, he could see the opened door for a bathroom as well as two other closed doors which he assumed were bedrooms.

Lost in his thoughts of looking around at the different elements of Sora's house, Roxas barely heard him speak.

“Head's up!” Sora called out as he closed the fridge door and threw a juice box in the direction of Roxas.

Taken by surprise, Roxas frantically fumbled as he tried to catch the juice box, which earned him a short fit of snickering on Sora's part. Once he was able to get a secure hold of it, he shot Sora an icy glare before he ripped off the straw and mercilessly stabbed it into the defenseless object.

“So,” Sora started. He walked around the front of the small island that was in the centre of the kitchen and leaned against it, taking a sip from his own juice box. “How've you been, man? We haven't talked or seen each other in ages.”

Roxas didn't know how to reply at first. How did one casually bypass the topic of secretly dating their friend's older brother and other past events involving said older brother that led up to where Roxas was now? Without tipping Sora off that he'd been fucking depressed all summer while trying to act somewhat 'normal' around everyone? Because that's exactly what it was, _an act._

“I've been alright,” Roxas spat out.

' _Fuck, not good._ ' He thought. “Just still getting adjusted and whatnot.” He tried, still sounding a bit rushed as he said it.

Sora looked at Roxas quizzically with a raised eyebrow. He didn't buy it for a second, but instead of calling Roxas out on it right then and there, he instead decided to store this tidbit of information at the back of his mind, filed away, for further investigation at a later point in time.

For the time being, he simply replied with, “Oh. Well, that's good.”

“Yeah.” Roxas replied, looking away, taking the opportunity to take a drink from his juice box and distract himself from Sora's gaze as an awkward silence fell between them.

“Wanna go upstairs and watch tv or something?” Sora asked, breaking the silence and pushing himself away from the kitchen island.

“Uh, yeah,” Roxas said, still feeling the slight awkward tension between them. “Sure.”

 

\----

 

They had been sitting on the queen sized bed in Sora's room for about an hour, Roxas sitting cross-legged while Sora laid on on his stomach, ankles crossed, fiddling with the remote control.

The walls in Sora's room were a light sky blue. The floors were a beige coloured hardwood and a large area rug covered majority of the floor. Clothes were thrown haphazardly into a laundry hamper that was near the door all of his drawers were in some way partially open, with clothes peaking out over the edges. It wasn't necessarily the most neatest of rooms but it was organized in it's semi-chaotic sort of way. A large window on the far side of the room looked out over his small backyard with a pool, and you could see the ocean in the distance if you looked out far enough.

“Are you enjoying Destiny?” Sora asked, placing the remote down and settling on whatever after-school cartoons were playing. He rolled onto his back and sat up to face Roxas, mimicking the cross-legged posture and placing his hands on his ankles.

“Huh?” Roxas asked. It took him a moment to realize that by “Destiny”, Sora meant the school, and not just random word that he pulled out of thin air. “Uh, yeah, it's alright I guess. The classes aren't as big as my old school so it's different, but nice.”

“Have you talked to him recently?” Sora asked, locking eyes with Roxas as he said this.

Roxas swallowed. He didn't have to ask Sora what he meant by this, he may not have looked like it, but Sora was pretty sharp when it came to other people's personal lives.

“You know exactly who I'm talking about Roxas.” Sora said bluntly. “Look, I don't know what the fuck exactly happened between you two, but whatever it is, you know you can tell me, right? I know for a fact that you two used to be really close so what's the deal? I haven't been able to figure out what's going on because neither of you will give me even the faintest of ideas as to what happened. Did you guys get into a fight or something? Is that why you moved here? To get away from whatever bullshit he was trying to pull?”

“Not exactly...” Roxas trailed off quietly. “I really don't wanna talk about it right now.”

A silence grew between them and hung heavy in the air, like a thick cloud of smoke. It dragged out for what seemed like an infinite amount of time despite only being a few minutes.

Sora eventually let out a frustrated groan, giving up on trying to get an answer out of the blond. “Fine. But you can't keep whatever's bothering you bottled up forever, you're just going to end up pissing people off, yourself especially.”

“Yeah...” Roxas responded as Sora got up and walked out of his room, only to come back a few minutes later holding two acoustic guitars, one each hand. He walked back towards the bed and shoved one of them towards Roxas.

“Play with me.” Sora said, sitting back down on the bed and as he started to tune his guitar.

' _What the hell is he doing?_ ' Roxas thought, still staring, confused, at Sora.

“I don't really play anymo-” Roxas tried to say.

“Bullshit.” Sora said. “I saw the video of you from a few months ago, you don't just suddenly forget and give up on playing that easily.”

The video was that Sora was referring was the video of him on the small stage of the cafeteria at his old school. Accompanied by a few of his classmates, they were all gathered there in a small circle, each of them holding an instrument in there hands. Roxas never really figured out why his old school had a stage in the cafeteria but regardless, it was there. The cafeteria was void of students so they had the entire area to themselves. The song they had chosen to perform together was an acoustic version of Killer Queen. It wasn't exactly the best performance that they had ever done but it wasn't like they were trying to impress anybody, they were just doing it for fun. Besides, they hadn't known they were being recorded at the time until it was already uploaded and all of their friends had seen the video, including Sora.

Roxas had been the one to sing majority of the song and strum the basic guitar parts, while the others joined in to sing all of the harmonies and play the more complex portions. He hated admitting it now but he was actually a fairly good singer, he just didn't enjoy it as much anymore because it brought up memories that he didn't like thinking about, but a small part of him still missed it.

“I know that you know this song, Rox.” Sora said as he pulled Roxas out of his thoughts and back into reality. Sora started strumming the first few chords and Roxas reluctantly joined in with picking at different notes to accompany the song.

“ _Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you,_  
_By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do._  
_I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do, about you now_.”

Sora began to sing quietly, waiting to see if Roxas would join in with him. Sora wasn't the greatest of singers but he could sing, and he damn well was going to if it would help improve Roxas' sour mood that he seemed to constantly be in.

“ _Back beat, the word was on the street that the fire in your heart is out._  
_I'm sure you've heard it all before but you never really had a doubt._  
_I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now._ ”

As Sora sang the next verse, Roxas finally mustered up the courage to join in. He wasn't confident enough to sing over Sora's voice so he settled on singing a harmony to go along with the chorus.

“ _Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me.  
And after all, you're my wonderwall.”_

 

They did this for an hour or so, gently singing old rock songs and enjoying each others company, talking about stupid and inconsequential things, and really just reconnecting with one another in their own odd sort of way, like they used to when they were younger. It was really nice for Roxas.

 

 ----

 

After having discarded the guitars by placing them on the floor, Roxas and Sora found themselves laying on Sora's bed, shoulder to shoulder but in opposite directions. Roxas' feet hung off the end of the bed while Sora's were absently tapping lightly against the wall where the top of his bed was pushed up against.

"Thanks, Sora." Roxas said, as he tried to pick out different patterns in the popcorn-ed ceiling of Sora's bedroom. So far he'd only found a few misshaped animals.

Sora hummed. "No problem, Rox. I figured you could use something to take your mind off of whatever things your thinking about. I know how much music means to you."

Music did mean a lot to Roxas. It was how he got through his day to day life without losing his mind. There was always an artist, or song, or melody to match his current emotion and that could help him feel grounded again.

"Whenever you're ready to tell me what's up then just lemme know, alright? I've always got an open ear if you need it."

Roxas wasn't really sure if he would ever be able to tell Sora about what was going on his head, he didn't know if he wanted to face the outcome.

"Yeah." Roxas replied quietly.

 

They stayed like that for some time, just day dreaming and listening to the cartoons in the background before a shrill sound started reverberating in Sora's pocket.

Sora scowled. "I was just about to drift off into a nap too." He fished the phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID, then sighed before sitting up and swiping the screen to answer the call.

"Hey, Kai. What's up?" Sora said casually into the phone, his back facing Roxas. "Huh? Slow down, I can't hear you when you talk that fast." He lightly laughed at whatever it was the person on the other end was rambling on about.

"...He what?" Sora said in an incredulous tone. "No, I didn't know about this. Does it look like I talk to him on a regular basis – don't answer that." Another sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kairi. I haven't the faintest idea why he would – hold on a sec."

Sora turned to look at Roxas, hand only slightly covering the speaker on his phone. "Hey, Roxas? You were paired up with Axel for peer tutoring, right?"

"How did you-" Roxas tried to say but was quickly cut off.

"Besides the point." An eye roll this time. "Was there anything weird about his face today? 

"Sora," Roxas said. "I just fucking met the guy, what do mean 'was there anything weird about his face'?"

Sora groaned loudly, annoyed. "Did he have any bandages or anything on him? Like, anything at all?"

"Yeah, why?" Roxas replied, confused as to where this was going.

Sora turned away from Roxas again, to put his attention back towards his phone.

"Yep, they're probably real." Sora said into the handheld's microphone, while pausing to hear what the person had to say. "Well, he's _your_ brother Kairi, not mine."

' _What the hell is going on?_ ' Roxas thought as he still laid there, confused as ever.

"Come over later and we'll watch a movie or something, 'kay?" Sora said in a cheerful voice before saying goodbye and ending the phone call, returning the device to his pocket.

"...Do I wanna know?" Roxas asked, not necessarily curious but more because he figured Sora would want to tell him anyway.

"Axel got facial tattoos." Sora stated. "Kairi, the one who just called me, is Axel's younger sister and uh, her parents aren't too pleased. And that's putting it nicely."

"Not surprised." Roxas said. "My parents would kill me if I went out and got tattoos on my face."

Sora lightly chuckled. "Yeah, same here."

' _I wonder what they look like..._ ' Roxas thought as they both decided that it was probably time to get up and go downstairs for dinner.

 

\----

 

Roxas went home when Kairi showed up at Sora's. She seemed nice. She had medium length red hair and clearly liked wearing girly clothes. Roxas also learned that Axel had failed most of his grade twelve year and was re-taking most of his classes this year. This explained how Axel was able to get tattoos in the first place, seeing as you needed to be eighteen to get tattoos without parental consent, and who was anyone trying to kid? Almost no one's parents would let their child get facial tattoos.

Roxas shook his head and sighed as he thought about all of this. He felt exhausted after today and it was only his first day back. He really just wanted to crash on his bed and go to sleep.

And that's exactly what he did. He finally got up to his room, after saying goodnight to his parents and explaining that he really just wanted to sleep, and went to bed, the exhaustion from the day's events finally taking a hold of him and dragging him down into a deep, dreamless sleep.

 

\----

 

It wasn't uncommon for Kairi to stay over. Considering the circumstances, Sora was more than willing to offer a place of refuge for her while her parents were on a warpath with her older brother, Axel.

They had spent the evening eating snacks and watching chick-flicks, as per Kairi's request, eventually deciding to call it quits around one in the morning. They figured they should probably get at least _some_ sleep because it was still a school night.

Once they had the extra fold-out mattress set up on the floor of Sora's room, they both said goodnight to each other and went to sleep.

 

 

The following morning, around eight AM, they found themselves eating breakfast together, Sora sitting on top of the kitchen island and swinging his feet in a childish manner while Kairi sat on one of the swivel bar stools.

"So, I heard you and Riku have a date tomorrow." Kairi said as she wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner. Sora's cheeks visibly pinked.

"I-it's not like that, Kai. He's just coming over so we can study."

"Why don't you ask him to hang out sometime? Go to the beach, go for a walk, go do _something_." She said as she took another bite of her cereal.

The sudden thought of Riku in his swim shorts made Sora feel a bit flustered. He quickly shook his head to rid the image from his mind.

"Because, Kairi. Clearly he's not all that interested in staying as close friends. He practically blew me off the entire summer. It sucks." He was annoyed. Annoyed that Riku didn't seem to be phased by the fact that their friendship was slowly dwindling. It really pissed him off sometimes. "I'd rather just not risk him not wanting to hang out period by bothering him about it. Maybe he's got shit going on in his life, I don't know. I feel like I don't know anything about anyone anymore. Look at Roxas for example, he's clearly battling his own demons right now but will he tell me about it? No! He won't tell me _shit_. He just sat there and shut himself out until I changed the subject." Sora let out an exasperated sigh, feeling deflated.

Kairi couldn't help but chuckle at Sora's rant. “Sorry,” She said, still letting the odd chuckle out. “I just find it a bit funny how much you get frustrated over things you have no control over.”

“Yeah, well, sorry for caring about people too much.” Sora pouted.

They finished cleaning up their breakfast and got ready for school, but not before Kairi said, “Seriously though, ask him to hang out sometime.” To which Sora grumbled to in response.

 

\----

 

Axel really did hate Thursdays.  
  
There was just something about them that always pissed him off. Mind you, he did also hate Mondays, Wednesdays, and a few other days of the week as well but he specifically hated Thursdays the most.

Today, it had been his parents and sister refusing to talk to him. He didn't understand what the big deal was. His older brother (or _half_ _-_ brother if we're being technical here) had facial tattoos and they never threw him a fit over it so why were they throwing Axel such a fit over it?

The little upside-down diamonds that were now permanently inked onto the upper portions of his cheeks, under his eyes, certainly attracted a lot of attention. Not a single student that walked past him didn't stop to gawk at him in some way, shape or form and he could hear the hushed murmuring that they were making. It caused him to scowl.

“Kai!” He called out, spotting his younger at her locker, and earning more stares from students.

“Kairi!” He tried again, nearing where she stood, as she was putting textbooks in her bag.

“What do you _want_?” she practically hissed.

“Jesus, would you fucking chill already? I don't get what the deal is with you, Mum, or Dad.” Axel replied in an annoyed tone.

“That's a joke, right?” She deadpanned. “ _I'm_ not the one who came home with tattoos on my _face_.”

“So what if I have ink on my face? Reno does too, you know.” Axel said, trying to defend himself.

“ _Reno_ didn't get them until he was twenty-one, _Reno_ didn't get them while he was still in high school, and _Reno_ told _his_ Dad as well as _our_ Mum before he even _considered_ getting them.” She sounded almost venomous.

Axel let out a frustrated sigh. “Why isn't anyone allowed to be spontaneous anymore, huh? What ever happened to living in the moment?”

“Because, Axel,” Kairi let out a frustrated sigh of her own. “The reason they think you got the tattoos in the first place was because of Larxene. We all damn well know how that ended: horribly. This sudden act of spontaneity is a little bit too much of a coincidence considering you only broke up with her about a month ago and to be completely honest Axel, I'm a little convinced it was because of her too.”

“It wasn't because of her.” Axel said quietly. “We were only dating a few month and those were the worst few moths of my life. She treated me like shit.”

“Yeah, well,” Kairi paused. “I'm not really the one you need to convince, now am I?”

Kairi closed her locker and headed off towards her next class.

 

\----

 

Lunch time finally rolled around and Axel found himself sitting at their lunch table, still in a sour mood. The rest of them quiet, not quite knowing how to react to Axel's most recent decision of body modification.

Zexion was sitting his chair, legs crossed and reading an impressively sized book. “I told you this is how they would react.” He said without lifting his eyes from the page.

Roxas, Demyx and Riku had already heard a lot of the rumors that had been going around that morning. Namely the rumor that Axel got the tattoos as a sign of retaliation against his (now) ex-girlfriend. Apparently she absolutely despised tattoos.

“Tch.” Axel replied, still pissed off that every one of his friends was taking this so badly.

“Explaining as to _why_ you got them would definitely improve your current situation. But then again,” Zexion paused, briefly looking up and turning the page of his book. “What do I know?”

“Oh, for fuck's sake, Z.” Axel said, annoyance evident in his voice. “Just drop it already, would you? Fuck.”

Axel suddenly stood up then, disregarding his bag and deciding to leave. “I need a fucking smoke. I'll be back whenever.” He took off in the direction of the doors to the cafeteria, swiftly making an exit and not bothering to look back to see if any one of his friends had tried to say something.

“Should one of us-” Demyx started to say.

“Leave him.” Zexion said, sighing and returning his attention back to his book. “He needs to cool down and get his head on straight.”

 

They spent the rest of their lunch in silence until the warning bell rang, signaling that students should start getting ready for their next classes. Axel still hadn't returned.

“Um, hey.” Roxas said a bit nervously, as the rest of them were packing up their belongings. “I'm gonna, um, go see if I can find Axel and give him bag. I can't really show up for peer-tutoring if I don't have someone to tutor...”

“...Fair enough.” Zexion said. “He's probably out front or on the bleachers in the back field. Think you'll be able to find your way?”

“Yeah, I should be fine.” Roxas replied.

“Alright, see you later then. Good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Roxas said as Zexion, Demyx and Riku departed for their next classes and Roxas reached down to grab his own as well as Axel's backpack and left in the opposite direction to go look for the boy.

 

\----

 

Roxas wasn't really sure why he decided to go look for Axel, he barely knew the guy. Logic said it was because there was no point in showing up to his next period if all they'd do is ask him to leave. Emotion told him that he understood what it was like to have friends judge you for your actions because of a relationship you were involved in, whether it be past or present. And another small part of him told him that maybe it'd just be a nice gesture to return Axel's backpack to him.

He checked the front of the school but he didn't have any luck there. The only people outside the front of the school were two teachers, both drinking presumably coffee and conversing with one another.

Roxas turned and decided to walk around the outside of school towards the back field. He told himself that if Axel wasn't there, he'd forget about this little endeavor of his and just shove Axel's backpack in his own locker until the other boy went looking for it.

The back of the school was nice, a few concrete tables and stools were set off to the side for students to eat there lunches at and there were three or four small trees helping cover the area with just the right amount of shade.

Roxas walked past all of this towards the bleachers where low and behold, a certain spiky redhead was currently seated on the top row of bleachers. He sat in a relaxed pose, with one arm over the back of the metal seat and one ankle crossed over the opposite knee. His other free hand was bringing itself up towards his mouth so he could take a long drag from the cigarette delicately placed between his index and middle finger in a habitual manner.

As Roxas approached, Axel didn't seem to pay much attention to the new presence, just kept on taking drags out of his current cigarette.

Roxas climbed the seats of the bleachers in an unceremonious way, eventually making it up to the top row of seats and walking across the row over to where Axel was sitting.

 

“Hey.” Roxas said, placing both backpacks down on the metal seat. “I brought your backpack. You left it in the caf.

“Thanks.” Axel curtly replied with a nod.

“Mind if I join you?” Roxas said as he took a seat beside Axel, slouching down so he could place the soles of his shoes against the back of the next row of seats.

“Why?” Axel asked, genuine confusion in his voice as he turned to look at Roxas, his expression still as cool as it had been a few moments a go.

' _Well fuck..._ ' He thought, he wasn't expecting Axel to actually ask why he all of a sudden decided to join him. “Not too sure to be honest, I just felt like it.”

Axel hummed in reply, finishing his current cigarette and throwing the butt away, only to reach into his back pocket to find his pack and pull out another.

“They do look nice by the way,” Roxas said as he looked out at the field of the school. He could see the little yellow dots of dandelions poking up out of the grass in some areas. “It really does suit your face quite well.”

Roxas turned to look at Axel, squinting a little from the glare of the metal as the sun reflected off of it. Axel just sat there unmoving, taken slightly aback by the comment.

“You think so?” Axel asked, once again moving and pulling out another cigarette out of the carton, placing it in his mouth and using a lighter to ignite the end.

“Yeah,” Roxas said replied. “I do.”

Axel smiled a bit at this. “Thanks, Roxas.”

“Anytime.”

They fell into a casual silence, listening to the few birds that were flying around and the very distant sound of the ocean.

“So, have you just been chain smoking this entire time?” Roxas asked after a few minutes, fiddling his thumbs in his lap.

Axel let out a long sigh. “Pretty much. Today's just not a good day, you know?”

“Yeah,” Roxas replied, letting the word drag out a bit. “I know the feeling.”

“Like, so _what_ if someone goes out and gets tattoos? What's the big deal? Why can't a guy go out and get tattoos without being judged for it? Without everyone assuming he got them in a moment of reckless spontaneity because of his ex?”

“Are we speaking hypothetically or are you referring to yourself?” Roxas asked in a joking manner, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

The corners of Axel's mouth twitched a few times at what he said before he replied with, “Don't be a smart-ass.”

Roxas looked away and tried to hold back a smirk, but failed terribly at doing so.

“Hey...” Axel said. “Are you free this weekend?”

Smirk still on his face, Roxas replied with, “yeah, why?”

“Wanna hang out or something? I mean we're stuck together as partners for peer-tutoring so might as well try and get acquainted, right?”

Roxas hesitated for a moment before replying. “Sure, I'm okay with that.”

“Sweet.” Axel pulled out his phone from one of his pockets and gently tossed it towards Roxas. “Put your number in there so I can text you, okay?”

Roxas obliged, noting that Axel's phone was a bit larger than what he was used to but still easy enough to navigate. “There.” he said, handing it back.

“Thanks.” Axel said, standing up. “We should probably head back so we can get to our next classes, the period's almost over.”

 

They gathered up their things and headed back towards the school, walking side by side until they reached the door, about to go their separate ways.

“Thanks again, Roxas.” Axel said sincerely, turning back briefly to look at the small blond. “I really appreciated the company.”

Roxas gave a small smile in return and headed towards his final class of the day, wishing that it would go by as quickly as possible.

 


	3. Beanie Boys and Bubble Tea

Friday. Finally. Riku couldn't wait to get to get his last two classes over and done with.

He was currently sitting on the polished wood floors of the gymnasium with the rest of his class, listening to their teacher ramble on about how he'd be taking a temporary leave of absence in a few months for whatever reason and that they'd be having a supply teacher coming in to teach them when he left.

' _Why is he telling this to the class now? Didn't he say he wasn't leaving for at least three more months?'_ Riku thought, hardly able to keep paying attention to his Phys. Ed. teacher, Mr. Lexaeus.

He was a relatively tall man, with short, orangey-brown hair haphazardly gelled back into God only knows what type of hairstyle he was trying to attempt. The guy was jacked. His arms alone looked like they could cause some serious damage with just a flex of one of his biceps.

_'I wonder if he's a body builder. . . Nah.'_

Riku continued these absent thoughts of his, trying his best to look like he was paying attention while really he was just let letting his mind wander to a variety of other topics.

Mostly though, he was thinking of his and Sora's study meet-up later that afternoon. Riku refused to call it a date – that would just be absurd. Teenage boys didn't meet up at each other's houses to study as a “date”.

He couldn't hep but feel butterflies in his stomach. Not the good kind either. No, these butterflies were beating there misshaped wings in erratic patterns and bumping into the walls of his abdomen, making him feel an awful sensation of nervous anticipation with a side dose of slight nausea. He hated it.

He wished he wasn't so nervous around Sora all of the time, he wished he had a proper excuse for always distancing himself in the most recent years of their friendship. Riku had no idea if Sora ever got upset with him over his actions but he just couldn't help it. It wasn't exactly _easy_ having a crush on one of your closest friends and having to constantly try to hide it from the other.

He'd started developing feelings towards the brunet near the end of the school year in grade nine.

Sora had gotten into a scrap with three other students over god only knew what had originally started it in the first place. He'd kicked and threw punches and managed to brake a senior student's nose. Seeing that side of Sora with all of his rage-filled excitement as he smiled wickedly and his eyed glinted with the thrill of the fight made something click inside Riku as he watched the fight from a distance, unable to move from being squished in between other students, but mostly because he couldn't help but stop and stare with wide aquamarine eyes and mouth slightly parted at the sight. In that moment, he'd seen Sora take after his older brother by how he carried himself throughout that fight. There had been no nervousness or reluctance, only thrill and anger. Riku had been entranced.

 

The final bell for the day rang as an already drained Riku made his way towards his locker.

 

He had spent most of the remainder of his two classes mindlessly drifting through the lessons, lectures and assignments, trying not to obsess or dwell on the looming thought of meeting up with Sora that had been hanging over his head like a thick, black smoke since the moment he'd woken up.

Yes, Riku was most _definitely_ nervous. He hadn't seen Sora at all during the summer, except on a handful of very brief occasions, and to be completely honest, that was mostly because Riku had avoided any type of interaction with the brunet.

“Family vacations”, having to study, being sick, Riku had used almost every excuse in the book. He felt awful about it. He hadn't meant to to spend the entire summer avoiding Sora, it just _happened._ One excuse turned into countless others and before he knew it, summer was over and he found himself sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs listening to teachers drone on and on about yet another seemingly pointless assignment.

 

He finally reached his locker and dropped his backpack with a soft _thud_. He rotated the dial of the standard lock the school had issued him through his combination, listening to all of the little clicks it made as he rolled over each number before he finally finished the sequence, yanking the lock down and to the side with enough force to break the damn thing if he had really been trying, allowing the metal door to swing open and reveal the contents of his assigned locker. Like most boys his age, he kept his locker bare asides from textbooks and other necessary learning material, the only other items being a couple of magnets and a small pad of blank pale yellow sticky notes stuck to the inside door of his locker with grossly gummed double-sided foam tape.

Riku figured he wouldn't need more than one or two of his textbooks for later on at Sora's so he grabbed what he needed and placed them into his backpack carelessly, which resulted in his mp3 player falling out and onto the floor beside his feet.

“Fuck.” Riku muttered, letting out a suppressed sigh and crouching down, reaching for the device.

His hand met with another's tanned one and he quickly snapped his head up, locking eyes with deep ocean blue ones.

"Here," Sora said, smiling sweetly, using one of his hands to turn over Riku's outstretched one and the other to place the mp3 player into Riku's now open palm.

Riku could feel the blush that was slowly presenting itself on his cheeks from the slight physical contact and gulped, quickly snatching up the mp3 player and stuttering out a "thanks" while looking away and turning his attention back to his backpack. He shoved the device into the front pouch and hastily zipped it closed, stood up, and closed his locker with a small bang, turning back towards Sora within a matter of seconds.

"Ready to go?" Sora asked, the sweet smile still present on his face.

"Uh, yeah, I'm ready." Riku said, absently brushing some his bangs to the side.

"Cool." Sora turned to walk down the hall towards the staircase, checking behind him to see if Riku was following.

They reached the doors for the staircase that led down into the foyer of the school, Riku quickly leaning forward in front of Sora to push the door open for him.

"Thanks!" Sora beamed, walking through the doors and returning the gesture by reaching back and holding the door open with one of his free hands.

Riku nodded in reply and offered a small smile, following Sora down the staircase into the foyer where countless students were gathered saying their goodbyes and waiting to be picked up by either the bus or their parents or some other form of a ride home.

Facing the staircase, was a large two-story wall of light blue tinted windows, which let the sunlight pour through the front of school, making the foyer feel bright and open and not so closed in from all of the florescent lighting.

They made their way towards the the front doors as the other students called out to Sora, saying goodbye to him. He returned every farewell with one of his own, his bright smile ever-present.

 

Once they were outside the school and walking towards the general direction of Sora's house, Riku spoke up.

"How do you deal with all that on a daily basis?"

“What, you mean talking to people so frequently throughout the day?" Sora asked with a slight amusement in his voice. "I don't know. I just like people, I guess. I like being involved with people's daily lives, even if it's as insignificant as just saying "hello" or "goodbye". I guess I just like the comfort of knowing that I have the capability to possibley make someone's day better, if that makes sense."

"No, it makes sense to me." Riku said reassuringly. "I just could never be so outgoing, personally."

Sora chuckled. "That's just 'cause you don't like talking to anyone."

"Hey-" Riku tried but was cut off by Sora waving his hand, indicating he wasn't done what he was trying to say yet.

"It's not always the best thing, Riku. Being so outgoing has gotten me into my fair share of predicaments. Remember in grade nine when I got into a fight with those seniors and ended up breaking that guy's nose because I couldn't keep my mouth shut?"

Riku shook his head and smiled. He hadn't been there for the entire fight, but he had witnessed Sora breaking said senior's nose before the principle had showed up and broken up the fight.

Sora looked down and recalled the memory.

\----

It was during second semester of their freshman year. Sora had somehow managed to pick a fight with three senior students over something most other students would consider trivial.

 

_Two and a half years prior:_

 

"Watch where you're going, _fag_." A senior with blond hair a beanie said as he elbowed a boy with pink hair into a set of lockers.

"Yeah", another one of them said. "Who the fuck dyes their hair pink? _Fag_."

Sora had overheard the entire one-sided conversation and Sora being, well, Sora, couldn't keep his mouth shut from talking on it's own accord and intervening.

"Hey, _assholes_." Sora called out to them. "Is there a fucking problem?"

Even at Sora's young age, he still had a filthy vocabulary, mostly thanks to hanging around his older brother one too many times.

They all turned around to face Sora, shocked that someone had actually spoken out.

" _Excuse me_?" The guy in the beanie said, taking a step towards Sora.

"Did I fucking stutter?" Sora countered, eyebrows raised. He took a step towards the group as well. "I _said_ , is there a _problem_?"

"Why don't you do yourself a favour and mind your own damn business, _freshmeat_."

Sora stood his ground and looked at them sternly. "Not until you apologize for using such a derogatory term."

The other boy laughed. "So, you're telling me that this pink haired freak isn't a fag? Look at him! The gayness practically oozes out of him. It's _disgusting_." The older boy spat as he shot the pink haired boy a dirty glare. "Isn't that right, _Marluxia_?"

The pink haired boy, Marluxia, stared back at them, wide-eyed and a bit frightened. His back was pressed firmly against the set of lockers he had been pushed into and he was clutching a textbook tightly against his chest.

"So, _what?!_ " Sora asked, anger evident in his voice. "Who _cares_ if he's gay or not? Why does it _matter_? Stop being such self-righteous pricks and leave him alone. Or are you and your little homophobic posse scared so shitless that the gayness will rub off on you?"

“Whatchu say?!” Another boy in an orange shirt said.

"Oh, so you can use insulting terms against _us_ , but _we_ can't use it against someone else?" Beanie boy -Sora decided to call him this- said incredulously. "Right. Makes sense."

"It's not insulting when it's true." Sora spat.

"You little-" He muttered as he closed the gap between Sora and him and threw the first punch.

Sora wasted no time by dropping his backpack and sidestepped the fist directed at him.

He brought his knee up and thrusted it into Beanie's abdomen, earning a pained groan in response.

The fight continued on like that for a few minutes before Sora faltered in his footing, staggering backwards as one of the three boys landed a punch into the side of his jaw.

Caught off guard, Sora didn't have the chance to maneuver out of the way as two of the boys grabbed him by the arms and pinned them behind is back.

Sora struggled to get loose but the two boys had a firm hold on him.

The leader (Beanie boy), walked up to Sora, making sure to keep a few feet between them, and touched the bottom of his nose that now had a thin trail of blood running down to sit on the top of his lip.

Beanie removed his hand and brought it down so he could take a look at the damage. He stared in rage at the blood that was now staining his fingertips.

“You're gonna pay for that.”

“Come a little closer so I can break it this time.” Sora spat, struggling against the human restraint he was being held captive in.

“Tch.” he said. “You really don't know how to keep your mouth shut, do you?” He walked forward and connected his fist into Sora's core. The blow radiated into his solar plexus, causing his diaphragm to contract from the pain and perform an awful hiccuping motion.

Temporarily winded, Sora tried his best to brace himself for the next punch that Beanie was about to throw.

“SORA!” Someone from down the hall shouted. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?!”

The group of students that had gathered around the fight cleared a path for the new presence that was storming their way towards the group.

Distracted by the sudden outburst, Sora managed to wriggle his way free from the tight restraint he was being held in and with one swift motion, he hooked his arm up and around to hit Beanie square in the nose. A disgusting cracking sound was heard as his fist made contact.

The other boy shouted out in pain and clutched his now steadily bleeding nose.

“ _You little fucker!!_ ” He screamed. He made a move to hit Sora with his other hand, but his wrist was suddenly caught in the grasp of another's.

“Keep your mother _fucking_ hands off of my little brother, Seifer.” the boy who had grabbed Seifer's wrist said. He had black spiked out hair and golden eyes. If looks could kill, he was currently performing a massacre on every person he laid eyes on.

 _'Huh.'_ Sora thought absently. _'Beanie boy sounded way cooler.'_

“Yeah? And what're you gonna do about it?” Seifer asked the other boy, voice muffled by the hand that clutched his nose.

He was met with a stone cold glare filled with rage. “You and I _both_ know that I could kick _all_ of your asses and _then some_ in a fucking heartbeat. _Don't_ make me test that indisputable _fact._ ”

This particular boy didn't have a good reputation. No one ever dared to approach him, get in his way, or even stare at him for too long unless they were either in his tight-nit group of friends or seriously didn't understand the concept him not needing or caring to have a rhyme or reason to pummel someone. He'd do it just for the sake of the thrill of the fight. This whole “bad boy” reputation wasn't just exclusive to fights either. Vandalizing, smoking pot in the boy's washroom, skipping majority of his classes, showing up to class intoxicated, throwing a stink bomb into the principal's office, making crude comments to faculty about their teaching ability, countless detentions; you name it, he had probably done it.

“That goes for you too Rai, and whoever the fuck you are.” The black haired boy said, pointing with his chin towards the two other boys who were trying to regain their restraint on Sora.

“Fuck right off, Vanitas.” Seifer said as he tore his wrist free from the tight grasp and rolled his shoulder. “ _He's_ the one who started it.”

“Oh, yeah, _real_ fucking mature.” Sora rolled his eyes. “First of all, _you_ threw the first punch and _second,_ I _still_ wouldn't have 'started' _shit_ if you had just apologized.” He said angrily.

“Would both of you just _shut the fuck up_ already?!” Vanitas looked over to Marluxia who was still just standing there against the lockers, his piercing gaze instantly grabbing the boy's attention. “Marly. Get out of here.” When he didn't make a move to leave, Vaintas growled out “ _Now.”_

 

The principal took this opportunity to finally make herself present. Apparently she didn't care tpo much to handle situations in a more timely manner. She was a short woman, her hair tightly pulled back into a bun and the crisp suit she wore was in matching pastel colours.

“Out of the way!” She called out in her shrill voice as students moved to the side to let her through. “The lot of you. My office. Now.” She didn't even stop to see if any of the students were following her as she continued walking. “The rest of you can clear the hallway and be on your way unless you'd like to join us.”

 

The principal gave them a stern lecture and two weeks worth of detention as well as two days suspension.

 

Once out of the office and in the hall, Vanitas grabbed Sora roughly by the shoulder and sharply pulled him aside.

“What the _hell_ were you thinking, Sora?!”

“I-” Sora tried to say, but was cut off.

“No. You know what? You _weren't_ thinking. Fuck.” Vanitas ran both hands through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. “Look Sora, I get it if you wanna create some sort of reputation for yourself but do me a favour, okay?”

Vanitas looked at Sora with a fierce gaze and lightly grabbed the front of his shirt. “ _Don't_ follow in my footsteps by going around and getting yourself into fights.”

“Tch.” Sora said, looking to the side. “Whatever.”

Vanitas tightened his grip. “I'm _serious,_ Sora! There's other fucking ways to make yourself a reputation. Don't fuck up like I did by getting yourself into a situation that causes to you to be on the verge of expulsion. One more fuck-up and I'm done, Sora. I'm _done_.”

Sora's eyes widened. “You-”

“Do I need to repeat myself? Has it finally sunken into that thick skull of yours?”

“Vani-” Sora said. “I-I didn't know.”

Vanitas released Sora and leaned up against the wall outside the office, crossing his arms and sighing.

Sora swallowed. “Do Mom and Dad-?”

“Do they know?” Vanitas asked, huffing out a breath, and glancing at Sora. “No, they don't. And I plan to keep it that way.”

Vanitas pushed himself off of the wall.

“Whatever. I'm leaving. Get your shit together, dude. I'm not gonna be there the next time you fuck up.”

Vanitas shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and left, not saying another word to Sora.

\----

Sora gave a heavy sigh.

“After all that, can you believe he actually went and got himself expelled during the last month of his senior year?”

"Is that why he moved to different town and switched schools? I heard some other guys talking about it at one point.” Riku asked. He didn't know Sora's older brother all that well, only that everyone at Destiny knew not to mess with him.

Sora hummed in reply and chuckled.

"He even went through the ordeal of changing his last name to my mom's maiden name so that his new school would 'hopefully'-” He added with air quotes while turning towards Riku and giving him a look. “-Look past all of his shit and give him a clean slate. Didn't really matter though. The school didn't care about what he did at Destiny since his hew school was all the way out in Twilight Town.”

Riku paused, finally cluing in. "Wait, Twilight Town? Didn't Roxas say he moved from there?”

“Mm-hm.” Sora smiled. "Him and Van were really good friends. I think they got into a fight though, Roxas doesn't seem to talk to him anymore.” Sora furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought once again.

Riku took that opportunity to look around at their surroundings. He realized that they had been walking for far longer than they should have been.

“Uh...” Riku started to say, confusion apparent in his voice. "Didn't we pass your street already?”

"Yep!” Sora said, snapping his head up and looking forward, increasing his pace.

 _'Yep?'_ Riku thought. _'Where the hell are we going then?'_

"I thought we were going to your house to study...?'' Riku asked, now even more confused. He jogged a few steps to catch up with Sora.

Sora coughed, bringing the back of his fist up to cover his mouth, before dropping it again, only to bring it back up and scratch his temple nervously instead.

"We're, uh, not going to my house?” Sora said sheepishly. "I mean, we can later if you really want to but um, I decided to take us to a cafe/snack shack thing that's on the beach, 'cause it's a really nice day and all, and well, it's only the first week of classes right?” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a jumbled mess. Sora looked away quickly with a- _was that a blush on his cheeks?_ Riku couldn't tell.

“Me and Kairi went there a bunch during summer break, it's a nice place.” Sora finished.

"Oh, okay.” Riku said after a moment. He was trying not to show how happy he actually felt. "That's cool.”

"Yeah?” Sora said, beaming. He was grinning from ear to ear. "Great! Let's go!”

Sora reached down and grabbed Riku's hand, intertwining their fingers. He took off running, not giving Riku the chance to object.

\----

"Bubble tea... And bourbon." Riku deadpanned. That was the name of the cafe Sora had taken them to. "How do those two even remotely go together?"

He'd disentangled their hands as soon as they'd stopped running. Riku blamed his flushed cheeks on the sudden mini-marathon that Sora had initiated.

"Pretty sweet, eh?" Sora smiled. "They have a tone of snacks and stuff too. In the daytime they run it as a cafe but during the evening they run it as a sort of beach-bar joint for all the older kids who come out to drink. You can even get boba with alcohol in it if you really wanted to."

Riku raised his eyebrows. "You seem to know the place quite well."

"Like I said, me and Kai came here a lot during the summer." Sora chuckled softly. "The owner was pretty lenient on sneaking us a couple of drinks every now and then."

The outside of the establishment had a typical beachy theme to it. A small deck outside the front door that was partially covered by an overhang had a few tables set up with umbrellas sticking out of the centre of them to provide some shade.

In front of the deck, there was a rectangular sandy area enclosed by wooden pegs and rope to create some type of defined space. Off to one side of the sandy area was a small makeshift stage that sat about three feet up off the ground. It also sported it's own form of an overhang made of tin. It was empty right now but Sora informed Riku that at night they set up the stage with (usually) DJ equipment or some form of sound system. Other times, they had local bands come out to perform mini concerts.

They walked through the double doors and a small bell chimed, signalling their presence.

"Take a seat anywhere! I'll be out in a minute!" A muffled, gruff voice called.

Sora made a beeline for the stools that were sitting under the ledge of the bar and Riku followed suit. The bar itself took up a fair amount of space in the centre of the room with the stools situated around the entirety of it except for the farthest side, where an opening was placed for staff. Depositing his bag next to Sora's near their feet, he pulled himself up to sit on the high seats.

A tall man with a black ponytail walked out of the saloon-styled doors labelled 'staff only', wiping his hands on a grey dishtowel before throwing it over his shoulder. He wore black board shorts and a Hawaiian-themed shirt with a waist apron tied loosely around his hips.

"Hey, kiddo! How's it goin'? Long time, no see! Who'd ya bring with you this time around?" The man said in his gravelly voice, eyeing Riku.

Riku noted that the man appeared to only have one eye, the right one being covered with an eye patch. He had a nasty looking scar on the left side of his face and grey streaks through his hair.

"Hey, Xiggy!" Sora replied, the other man frowned at the nickname.

"I thought I told you last time not to call me that, it's embarrassing. Xig is fine but 'Xiggy' is out of the question, kid."

"Whoops." Sora smirked. "This is Riku, by the way."

"Ah, so you finally dragged his ass out here, did ya? Good to know I can count on you to bring me more customers." The older man winked with his one good eye.

"Uh, hi." Riku said, not sure how to go about talking to the man.

"The name's Xigbar and this here is my fine establishment, feel free to make yourselves comfortable or whatever." He said with the wave of his hand. "Do you need menus?"

"Yes please!" Sora said, smiling like he always seemed to be doing on a constant basis.

Xigbar pulled out two menus from behind the bar, giving each of them one to look through.

"Bubble tea and all that other weird shit is in the front, booze and normal food is on the back."

"Do you not like it?" Riku inquired, looking at the menu, a bit taken aback by the owner's comment.

"Kid, I don't even understand it. That's why I hired someone else to take care of it for me. I'm just in charge of taking care of this place and making sure the bills get paid. I could care less what you kids find appetizing as long as it makes me money."

Riku smirked at the reply, turning his attention back to the menu. They had a variety of options, but the slushes were looking pretty good to him right now.

A few minutes passed as they both looked through their menus. Riku was impressed by the amount of options that were lain out for him to choose from.

"I'm ready to order." Sora said in a serious tone, slamming the menu down in front of him and onto the bartop.

"Of course you are, kiddo." Xigbar turned away from them and in a loud voice bellowed out, "YUFFIE! Your favourite customer is here! Now get your ass out here already, I don't pay you for nothin'!"

A short girl with black hair kicked open the 'staff only' doors and walked out. The doors swung behind her in a repetitive back and forth motion until they finally came to a halt.

Her short cropped black hair was accompanied with by a thin dark blue ribbon covering her forehead that was tied behind her head. Following the beach theme of the cafe, she wore a navy blue crop top with white hibiscus silhouettes and a dark grey crop jean jacket to match. The top of her fallow coloured high-waisted shorts were rolled down to her hips, revealing her middrift. The entire outfit was completed with black thigh-high socks and tan lace-up boots.

The girl placed her hands on her hips. “I thought I heard your voice, squirt!”

She walked behind the bar and grabbed a black waist apron, tying it snugly around her hips. She reached across the bartop and ruffled Sora's his hair, causing his already unruly spikes to fly up into even more chaotic spikes. She removed her hand and folded her arms on the bartop, chuckling at Sora as he tried to tame down some his hair.

“So how've ya been? I haven't seen you in a few weeks.”

“Oh you know, I've just been doing boring stuff like school and whatnot...” Sora said, patting down the last of his spikes into a more acceptable manner.

“Pft. Yeah, okay.” Yuffie said, rolling her eyes. “Last time I checked, 'Sora' and 'boring' weren't even located in the same dimension.”

Sora pouted. “What's that's supposed to mean?”

Riku chuckled. “I think she means to say that nothing about your life is ever dull, you're always full of energy and charisma.”

Yuffie looked over to him, she was too focused on Sora to recognize his presence right away. “You must be Riku.” she smiled sweetly at him. “Sora talks about you all the time. I'm glad he finally brought here since he wouldn't shut up about it.”

“H-hey!” Sora said. “I do not!”

“Yeah, ya do.” Yuffie said, turning her attention back towards Sora.

“It's true.” Xigbar agreed, folding his arms across his chest.

“Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn't let me drink so much when I come here. I talk to much when I drink.” Sora crossed his arms stubbornly. “I can't believe you would serve alcohol to minors, it's irresponsible.”

“Don't know what you're talking about, little dude. I always check ID's before serving to anyone.”

“Doesn't mean you're not 'forgetful' about who you serve the drinks to.” Yuffie added with a smirk.

“I'm an old man, what can I say? My memory escapes me in my old age.”

“You're not _that_ old, Xig.” Yuffie replied with an eyeroll.

They talked for a few more minutes and Riku fell silent, feeling left out of the conversation.

He distracted himself by looking down at his hands, he really needed to cut his nails soon, they were getting quite long. The current length made his fingers look even more elongated and lengthy than they already were.

 _'I should really cut them soon too...'_ Riku thought as he looked up through his lashes at his bangs. He was getting pretty tired of having to constantly push them aside and out of the way of his line of sight.

“-ku.” That voice sounded awfully close. Was someone shaking his arm?

“ _Riku!”_ Oh. The voice was calling his name.

“Hm?” Riku slowly turned his head in the direction of the voice. He could feel Sora's breath on his face from how close their current proximity was.

Riku assessed the current situation: Sora's hand was gripping his arm with a surprising amount of force. Sora had a frustrated look on his face which mere inches away from his own.

Whether it was the physical contact or the the proximity of their faces, Riku reacted by quickly pulling his arm out of Sora's grip and looking away. He could feel that his face was hot. He only hoped that it wasn't as red as it felt.

Sora coughed. “D-do you know what you want to order?”

“I, uh, didn't really decide yet to be honest.” Riku said sheepishly, chancing a gaze towards Sora who also still seemed to have flushed cheeks. “Order for me?”

“Right. Okay.” Sora's expression turned back into that of a determined one as he looked at Yuffie. “I'll get two order's of the Taiwanese sausage, one order of toast with buttercream condensed milk, one pineapple green tea with green apple jelly...” He turned to look at Riku with a concentrated look. “And one honeydew milk tea with grass jelly.”

Yuffie quickly scribbled down the order on her notepad that she pulled out from her apron. “Okay, anything else?”

“No, thanks.” Sora smiled at her.

She returned the smile. “For here or to go?”

“To go, please.”

“Alright,” She said. “I'll have it done in a jiffy.”

Sora left temporarily to go and pay Xigbar while Yuffie returned to the back to ready their order. Riku could here the muffled sound of ice being shaken in a glass while he waited, absently twiddling his thumbs together.

 

By the time Yuffie returned, juggling the cardboard takeout boxes and drinks, Sora had returned to his seat and was absentmindedly humming a tune that Riku couldn't distinguish.

“Alright, squirts.” Yuffie said with a slight huff, handing them their drinks as well as the boxes. “That's everything.”

“Thanks , Yuffie!” Sora said with a smile.

“Thanks.” Riku said quietly.

“Anytime.” She smiled back. “Hey, that Demyx guy is having a show with his sister next weekend, you two should come if you're not busy.”

“For sure!” Sora said. “You wanna come, Riku?”

“Uh, yeah,” Riku replied. “Sure.”

“Sweet,” Yuffie said, grinning. “I'll see you two then.”

She turned around and left the bar area to go find Xigbar, who seemed to be having a hard time with someone over the phone judging by the frustrated sighs he was letting out.

Sora hopped down from his seat and reached to grab his bag. Riku followed suit.

“Where are we going?” Riku asked curiously.

“Not far,” Sora chuckled. “Just a few hundred metres down the beach so we can park our asses and enjoy the weather while eating this amazing food that is calling my name.”

Riku chuckled and shook his head, following behind Sora.

 

They walked out the front doors and onto the beach where they eventually situated themselves, looking out at the ocean and very small island off to the side in the distance.

“Remember when we used to go there as kids?” Sora asked, glancing at the small island. He opened one of the boxes containing the sausage dish and handed the other to Riku who gratefully accepted the food. The dish itself wasn't anything spectacular. The simplified recipe used was just a mild tasting fried pork sausage covered in brown sugar, chopped into bite-size pieces. It was simple but hearty, a go-to comfort food.

“I do.” Riku said, taking a bite of his food. It was delicious. “I bet I could still beat you in a race.”

“Psh, as if.” Sora laughed. “After we're done this, I'll prove you wrong.”

Riku snorted, becoming more comfortable with the situation, his nerves were finally calming down.

“You're on, bitch.”

“Is that a _challenge,_ sir?” Sora asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Riku laughed, genuinely, his eyes crinkling. “What do you think?”

Sora stared at him for a moment. He hadn't heard Riku laugh like that in such a long time.

“What?” Riku chuckled, still smiling a bit.

“N-nothing.” Sora said, giving a smile of his own. “It's just been awhile since we hung out so I'm glad you're enjoying yourself.”

Riku sighed, setting his now finished food and almost finished drink aside. He interlaced his fingers and stretched his arms out in front of him. “I think I'm about ready for that race.”

“Oh yeah?” Sora said, placing his finished food down as well, looking at the other still unopened box. “Wanna eat the toast once we're done?”

“Deal.”

“What do I get if I win?” Sora asked as he started to stand up, taking off his shoes.

“I don't know.” Riku responded, following the same motion. “What do you want?”

 _'There's a lot of things that I want'_ Sora thought. “You have to go on a date with me.”

“W-what?!” Riku stammered out incredulously.

“I'm joking,” Sora smiled. “But you owe me bubble tea next time, how about that?”

“S-sure, that works.” Riku said, voice faltering a bit.

“OnetwothreeGO!!” Sora shouted, taking off while digging his now bare feet into the warm, white sand.

“Hey!” Riku shouted. “No fair!”

“Last one to the water loses!” Sora shouted back, laughing.

Riku picked up his pace and caught up to Sora, he only had a few dozen meters before they hit the shoreline.

“Nice try, Sora.” Riku panted as he took the lead, the finish line was in sight. He could win this. He could already taste the victory.

“Oh, no you don't.” Sora said as he made a final leap towards the water, reaching out to Riku as he tumbled forward.

“Fu-” Riku choked out as Sora collided with him and they both fell forward into the shallow water, temporarily descending under the waves.

Their limbs tangled and collided as they broke the surface of the water, gasping for air.

“You can't seriously say that you won that.” Riku panted, still coughing as they sat in the shallow water, regaining their regular breathing patterns.

“Never said I did.” Sora said, smiling in between ragged breaths of his own.

“Cheater.” Riku said, shaking his head to rid his hair of some the water, splashing Sora in the process.

“Overachiever.” Sora laughed, splashing him back.

Toast forgotten, they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each others company, wandering the shoreline until it was time to pack up and head home.

“You still owe me a bubble tea next time.” Sora said as they gathered up their belongings, the sky starting to turn orange in the distance.

“Yeah, whatever.” Riku replied smiling.

 

They walked back to Sora's house where they spent the rest of the evening studying, as originally promised, until it was time for Riku to head home.

 

“Um,” Riku started as he stood just beyond the entrance of Sora's house, looking over his shoulder. It was dark outside now and all of the street lights had come on. “We should do this again some time. I had a lot of fun.”

“Sure.” Sora smiled at him, the joy inside his chest bubbling over in waves.

“'Night, Sora.” Riku smiled at him as he turned to walk home.

“Goodnight, Riku.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT.
> 
> I've been so busy with life, work and the holidays that I haven't been able to sit down and properly write. I was hoping to have at least chapter five done by now because I wanted to publish it on Christmas Eve.
> 
> ANYWAY, I'll see all of you in the new year! I hope you all had good holidays!!
> 
> I rushed to edit this so please tell me if there's any spelling mistakes!
> 
> -Demi
> 
> P.S. the pork dish is actually based off of a restaurant I visit frequently where they use the same recipe.

**Author's Note:**

> Was it good? horrible? constructive criticism is always welcome!  
> -Demi
> 
> *UPDATE: I went back and fixed a shitton of mistakes, if you happen to come across any more, then please just give me a heads up and I'll go fix them, thanks!  
> -Demi


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